Wine & Dine Wednesday kicks off the New Year with salmon cakes. I think I mentioned earlier we hand carried a salmon on ice with us from Seattle on the plane to serve the next day at our Boxing Day supper. With Hawthorne being in the country doing a shopping run on December 26th would have been tough since we had guests arriving at 2, so we quite liked the idea of bringing a bit of Pacific Northwest to the Hudson Valley. When I headed out the door on Christmas Eve morning to get the salmon, before we opened the shops, I asked TPS how many pounds I should get for our party. We came up with 10 pounds. Keep that in mind. SO, off I went thinking a BIG fish and I usually find fresh salmon for around 20 bucks a pound. WELL, my chin about dropped when all I could find from the purveyors who were selling whole salmon to be packed up to travel was $50 a pound. I thought we could just serve caviar and it would be less expensive. After a quick chat with the fishmonger, he said we could easily get away with tons less as it was being served with other hearty things. So in went our beautiful salmon in its cute carry box to make its way East. The reason I tell the above story is there was no way possible we were going to let one flake of that gorgeous (expensive) salmon go to waste. Which brings us to salmon cakes!

Our sister-in-law Marian had offered to make/bring barley mushroom risotto for the Boxing Day supper, which was out of this world. The heartiness was one of the reasons the fishmonger thought we could get away with serving much less salmon. He was so right! We had leftovers of both so a few nights later I thought I would make salmon cakes and serve them atop the re-heated risotto. This recipe is for when you have leftover cooked salmon. The salmon needs to be cooked prior to making these cakes. Mister Sive had prepared the salmon for the Boxing Day meal gloriously, covered in fresh herbs, shallots & citrus zest. So I really did not need to add much to make these cakes sing. Here is what I did.

In a big bowl, break up the salmon into pieces. To that add a dusting of panko bread crumbs, a big dollop of Dijon mustard, a generous hand with the Worcestershire bottle with at least 5 or more big glugs, a squeeze of half a lemon, a good oversized spoonful of mayo, and a generous amount of salt & pepper. Lastly, a beaten egg to bind all that yumminess together. Now mix that all together. Then form into balls, squishing ever so lightly down on them to make round/cake shaped. On a plate add a quite good amount of panko bread crumbs. One at a time take each salmon cake and put it into the waiting pile of bread crumbs and coat fully. Then put the lot on a clean plate and put in the fridge for a bit to chill and set.

Then add a good amount of extra virgin olive oil to a frying pan and heat up on medium heat. Add the salmon cakes, cooking each side until golden brown. Serve.

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